


Stay

by JRCash



Category: The Tribes of Palos Verdes (2017)
Genre: F/M, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Underage Drinking, Light Angst, One Shot, Reader-Insert, This movie left me with all the feels and they needed to get out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-27
Updated: 2018-12-27
Packaged: 2019-09-28 19:26:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17188949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JRCash/pseuds/JRCash
Summary: You never pressed, never pushed Jim for what truly was bothering him. You knew it was bad, everything that was happening. People talked in Palos Verdes, you heard the snide whispers about what was happening with the Masons passing from between botoxed lips.





	Stay

“Jim!” You grabbed the lapels of his coat, trying to get him to sit up. He was dead weight against you, laughing as you struggled with him. “How much did you take tonight?”

“Fuck, baby, relax” he slurred. “ ‘s fine. C’mere. Lay with me”.

Your head spun a little from the cheap booze, but you refused anything else Jim had taken. You knew how it went with him, the cocktail of pills and pulls from one hitters as they were passed around. Anything that was offered, he took willingly with a smile.

The party had finally died down. The bay boys were long passed out higher up on the cliffs or in the beds of their trucks, leaving you and Jim alone further down the peninsula.

Laying down on the blanket, you rested your head against Jim’s chest, his heartbeat echoing in your ear. Reaching for his hand, you tried to slip your fingers between his.

Wincing, Jim pulled back his hand, tucking his fingers into the sleeve of his coat.

“What happened?” you asked, your voice quiet as you studied his hand in the moonlight. His knuckles were swollen and bruised. No doubt he’d hit something…or more likely, someone, to protect his spot of the ocean.

Jim shook his head, his hair flopping against his forehead.

“She’s lost hold again” he quietly admitted.

He didn’t need to say any more for you to understand. His mother’s outbursts, his father’s infidelity, how everything at home had crumbled around him. Medina took the brunt of Sandy’s anger while Jim was bounced back and forth between the two.

“She fucking makes me play go fish. Again and again, hand after hand. Who knows with her anymore. Apparently I’m  _the man of the house now_ ” he huffed, the words laced with venom. “I can’t be everything. Everyone wants something from me and I just fucking can’t anymore”.

Taking a deep breath, the salty air filled your lungs as you looked up at the sky above you. The waves were always so loud here, even in the dead of night. Crashing against the rocks, over and over again. You never pressed, never pushed Jim for what truly was bothering him. You knew it was bad, everything that was happening. People talked in Palos Verdes, you heard the snide whispers about  _what was happening with the Masons_  passing from between botoxed lips.

“Can I ask you a question?” Jim’s voice cut through the silence.

“Yeah” you replied, propping yourself up on an elbow, resting your chin in your hand.

“Am I crazy like her?”

“No” you replied, reaching out to push away a strand of hair from his forehead “You’re just sad”.

You hated seeing Jim like this. His eyes held it the most, even when he was trying his best to hide his emotions away. You wished you could take it all away, set him free from it all. To the world and to the waves. Perhaps he would find happiness there. You continued to play with Jim’s hair, curling bits of his dark locks through your fingers as he stared up at the sky above him.

* * *

A car door slammed, the engine still running, allowing the headlights to cut through the darkness.

“Jimmy!” Sandy’s voice rang out. She was wrapped in her faded pink bathrobe, her hair a wild mess as she stomped down the hill towards you.

“Oh shit” Jim shot up from the blanket, you quickly following suit. Sandy reached you first, shoving Jim to the side to grab onto your forearm. You tried to break free, but her fingernails only dug deeper into your skin as she pulled you closer. You went still, wide eyed in shock as she was inches from your face.

“He’s just like his father. He’ll break your heart like any man” Sandy hissed. You tried to wiggle your arm free of her hold again, wanting to run from the venomous lies she threw at you. “Listen to me, girl” her voice was shrill as she shook you in her grasp “They’re all no fucking good”.

“Mom!” Jim urged, trying to pull his mother away from you and back towards her car.

How she had found out where he was, he didn’t know. She had begged and pleaded for him to not leave that night, yelling after him that she needed him to stay with her as he made his way to the front door. Medina watched in silence from her bedroom door as their mother picked up a vase and threw it at Jim’s back, swearing to the heavens that he was as rotten as the rest of them . Shattering glass sprayed across the foyer as Jim disappeared into the night, the door clicking shut behind him, locking away exactly what he wished to escape.

“Get the fuck off me, Jim” Sandy screamed, letting you go as she spun around to push against Jim’s chest. Jim pushed back, Sandy’s foot catching on her robe, causing her to stumble forward. Jim tried to catch her, but it was too late. He would never intentionally hurt his mother, but she slipped through his grasp. He watched in horror as she fell to her knees sobbing.

“You deserve each other” she spat as looked up at the both of you, her cheeks stained with tears and a fire in her eyes. “You know that?” she asked, pointing directly at Jim first. “Don’t come home tonight”. Her finger turned to you, shaking as a sob racked her body. “Don’t bring her around my house”.

“Mom” Jim pleaded, reaching down to try and help her to her feet. Sandy swatted his arm away, the crack of her palm against his bare skin echoing through the darkness.

“Don’t touch me!” Sandy yelled. She pushed herself from the ground, her robe now covered in dirt and sand. She made no effort to brush it away as she took one long, last look at the both of you before turning back to march up the hill to her car.

You stood frozen in place as you watched Sandy back out of the parking lot and speed off into the night. Tears pricked at the corners of your eyes as you rubbed your arm, the burning pain she had inflicted finally registering to your brain. You looked down, examining the deep welts Sandy had left on you, tracing the crescent indents marked into your flesh. The tears you had been trying to will away began to pour down your face as you rocked back and forth on your feet.

You felt Jim wrap his arms around you, holding you tight as you buried your face into the worn denim of his coat. Slowly, you released your hold on your own arms, wrapping them around his body and pulling him tight to you.

Jim didn’t deserve to live like this, with a mother who was so wrecked with her own grief she lashed out at anyone in her path. To watch him try and cope, downing every pill, washing them away with the burn of cheap liquor. Your heart broke, not only for him, but for Medina. For every long winded story she told you of how her and Jim were going to escape this place, find solace in the sand and sun of far away beaches. They were all just dreams, you thought, your tears soaking into Jim’s coat as he rubbed your back in slow circles. Palos Verdes was going to claim him, forever take him and hold him captive.

Jim wanted to take back everything his mother said to you. You were his light, his one thing that kept him strong. To see you broken like him left him helpless, his clouded mind racing to try and find a way to make everything alright again. He was more than this place, his home that he was in. He was a fighter, and he wasn’t going to give in just yet.

Pressing his nose against the top of your head, Jim nudged you to look up at him. You stared into his deep blue eyes, trying to make sense of it all.

“Stay here with me. With the ocean. You’re part of my tribe” Jim said, his voice barely audible over the waves.

“You’re my tribe too” you murmured “You’ll always be my tribe”.


End file.
